Joining His Former Rivals
Considering that the Alliance Party had little interest in gaining Indo-Fijian votes, James Shankar Singh found himself being drawn closer to the then leader of the National Federation Party and his former arch-rival, S.M. Koya. When Vijay R. Singh resigned his Ba National seat in 1985, James Shankar Singh nominated for the seat seat on behalf of the National Federation Party. Interestingly enough, his Alliance Party opponent was his brother, Uday Singh but by this time the National Federation Party was in decline with the rise of the Fiji Labour Party. This was the first election contested by the Labour Party and its candidate was the future Prime Minister of Fiji, Mahendra Chaudhry. The election was won by Uday Singh with 7848 votes defeating Mahendra Chaudhry who got 7644 votes and James Shankar Singh a distant third with 5003 votes. In the 1987 election he stood as a NFP-Labour coalition candidate for the Nasinu/Vunidawa Indian Communal Constituency and won his seat easily but the coup of 1987 ended his political career.
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